


Feeling the Heat

by hockeylass



Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Avengers Family, Blood and Injury, Hurt Peter Parker, Hurt/Comfort, Illness, Infection, Injury, Medbay, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker Whump, Recovery, School, Surgery, dumpsters, so does tony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-24
Updated: 2019-06-17
Packaged: 2020-01-25 22:09:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 19,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18583561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hockeylass/pseuds/hockeylass
Summary: Peter Parker used to really like the summer weather. On this particular day, however, he discovered how much it didn't like him.





	1. Vitals

**Author's Note:**

> I've never written a Marvel fic before so please forgive the following:
> 
> a) Wrong characterisation - really sorry if I haven't written your fave in the right way (I did try really hard though!!)  
> b) Medical inaccuracies - these are really very likely as I am totally clueless, although I did a fair bit of research (well, as much as you can with regard Spider health...)  
> c) There is a bit of swearing but not gratuitous! 
> 
> Hope you enjoy!!

It was another hot summer’s evening in New York City.

Most summers in Manhattan were stifling, with only the warm wind coursing between the network of high-rises and skyscrapers to provide even the slightest relief. But climate change was very much in play these days and this summer, as The Weather Channel kept confirming, was hotter than ever. 

People were told not to go outside during peak times, the tarmac started melting in patches on Broadway, and Central Park had gone from its lush green to a scorched shade of pale yellow. Finding a bag of ice in the convenience stores was like finding gold and Spiderman had been forced to break up a few fights over the treasured commodity in the last two weeks.

On this particular day, unlike most during this heatwave, it was not only stiflingly hot, but it was also horrendously humid. Peter’s suit was stuck to him with sweat and he could feel the beads dropping down the side of his face under his mask. Tony had fitted it with a heater, but not with a cooler. Even he hadn’t predicted this kind of weather. 

As with most afternoon and evenings on patrol, Peter was sitting atop the roof of a residential block, in the shade of the escape hatch, catching up on homework. He’d made this particular building “home” on his patrols, as it had a central location for responding to incidents and a handy little nook where he could hide his belongings. Plus it was fairly close to his metro line home – missing curfew wasn’t an option these days.

“Peter, my sensors are picking up abnormal activity in the Lower East Side,” said the familiar and kind voice of Karen, interrupting Peter’s calculus. “Five men on the roof on the corner of Norfolk St and Delancey.”

“On it!” exclaimed Peter, who relished the prospect of ditching his workbooks and whooshing through the air to cool down a couple of degrees.

Halfway to his destination, swinging from building to building, Peter began feeling fatigued. First, his muscles burned with lactic acid, and then his shoulders began to ache. It was getting harder and harder with each swing. Not normal, he noted. Usually, he had energy to spare. Plus he had actually taken the time to eat that day for once. 

“Karen is anything showing up on my vitals, something feels off,” he asked, mid-swing.

“Your heart rate is a little faster than normal, Peter, perhaps a rest would be beneficial?”

“Sure I’ll be fine, maybe I’ll take a rest after I’ve investigated,” he conceded. He felt tired. He didn’t like it.

Ten minutes after leaving his usual patrolling perch, he arrived on the building next to his destination. Immediately, the hairs on the back of his neck rose – definitely dangerous, he concluded. 

“Approach with caution, Peter,” Karen warned. “Take your time, you need to be ready, there’s more of them than you and they’re all big guys, according to my scans. Your vitals are telling me you are now at around 70% strength.”

Great, he thought. His breathing was a bit laboured, he felt… well, he felt unfit, as if his powers were spent. What was going on?

He took the time out to fully scan what was ahead of him and try to recover his energy. Three men, brandishing knives, were facing two other men in biker jackets – one of which had a large duffle bag. Perhaps a deal had gone bad, he wondered.

He was a short leap away from being right in the midst of the action and given the nature of the standoff and the large weapons on show, he thought it sensible to go by stealth. Slowly, he lowered himself down the side of the building out of sight of all five protagonists and gently leapt across to meet the neighbouring wall. A cat, perched on a fire escape railing, meowed at him loudly and Peter prayed it was not enough to distract the two gangs. 

He moved round to a point where he knew he had the shelter of hung-out washing at the top and climbed over. His muscles were really aching and the sweat was now pouring from him, beads trickling into his eyes and stinging them. He had enough time to take off the mask and wipe his face before setting himself up for the ambush. “How’s everything looking Karen, am I good to go?” asked Peter. He knew the answer but asked anyway. 

“Your vitals have slipped down to 60%. I cannot determine why this is happening but I would advise caution, Peter. If they drop much more I will have to call Mr Stark.”

“No don’t do that, I’ll be fine. Promise I’ll get some food and sleep after this and it’ll be fine,” Peter explained with a small sigh. Sleep would be good right now, he thought.

With his physical stamina in serious question and the heat bearing down on his back, Peter decided it was now or never. Not wanting to show any sign of weakness, he ambled towards them with his now-renowned cheeky persona. 

“Hi guys,” he waved. “Mind telling me what you’re doing up here because, I gotta be honest, it’s not looking legit to me!”

As he spoke, he shot web fluid to the duffel bag and dragged it over towards him. It was open enough for Peter to see it was packed full with wads of money, clearly the haul from a robbery. 

“I’m guessing this belongs to none of you?” he said, slinging the bag to the other side of the rooftop courtyard out of reach. “You really should return it.”

The men looked at one another and united against Spiderman, walking together towards him. The men who’d had the bag pulled guns.

“Don’t mess with things that don’t involve you, you little shit,” said the largest of the men, waving the knife in Peter’s direction. “Go back to rescuing grannies and before you do, go get that money and give it back.”

“Ah see, I can’t do that now can I? I’d be assisting a crime, and that’s just not me,” Peter shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant while internally his spider-senses were going mad.

It all happened in a flash. 

Before Peter could even register what was going on, one man from each group bolted towards the money to stake a claim, and the biggest man who’d threatened him lunged towards him with the knife. 

Peter saw the flash of silver come towards him and leapt up as he would have done every other day to avoid contact. But for whatever reason, he could not get the same height, as if he’d lost the spring in his step. Interesting, he thought. He’d have to do this on foot, hand-to-hand combat — the old-fashioned way. 

Landing back down again Peter threw web grenades in the faces of his attackers, and towards their hands in an effort to prevent them from making contact and to knock the knives to the floor. His attackers disoriented, Peter spun around them, binding them together and, as they clattered to the ground, Peter then threw web grenades towards the men fighting over the cash to try to immobilise them.

But by this time, all he felt was exhaustion and he missed the pair, time and time again. The lack of accuracy created enough time for one of the men to shoot dead the other and make his escape, jumping across to a connected rooftop. 

He just didn’t have the energy to chase them. And it was then he noticed the pain.


	2. Lit by the crescent moon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things aren't looking great for poor Spidey :(

If the heat of the day wasn’t enough, the heat of the pain coming from his right thigh felt like the rays of a thousand suns. 

It took his breath away, and time seemed to move from its usual pace into slow-mo. He looked down and saw a deep, foot-long wound going up from his knee towards his hip. Instinctively, he put his hands on his leg and tried to put pressure on it, but blood seeped through his fingers making his hands slippery and ineffective, and black dots began to swim into his vision as he realised what was happening.

Without warning, he felt his knees give way, his body non-compliant to what his brain wanted him to do, which was get to safety. Before he had time to fight it, he was face first down on the hot tarmac roof. A triple threat of heat attacked him from all angles - from the sun, from his leg and from the floor. 

“Peter, you are suffering significant blood loss from your leg wound and require urgent medical assistance. I need to call Mr Stark,” Karen said, though Peter only heard parts in his pain-addled haze.

“No… no I’ll get home. Dn’t call,” Peter slurred as he attempted to pull himself upright. He didn’t want to bother Mr Stark or take the telling off he knew he’d get if Iron Man had found out he’d tried to tackle five guys at 60% strength.

To save himself the hassle and to get some air, he pulled his mask off, disconnecting himself from Karen. God, it was stifling. And so hot. He slumped back down on the ground, unable to find the strength to move any more. 

Seconds turned to minutes, minutes turned to hours. Time had gone from an agonising slow-mo to a complete stop. 

Peter had no idea how long he’d been there. He was curled up on his right side, both hands still pressed against his thigh (for whatever good that was doing). When he fell, he distinctly remembered the sun on his face. Now it was on his back.

“Karen?” he slurred, forgetting the mask was no longer on. “Karen you there?”

The silence which followed was more than he could bear.

He knew he had to move, get some shade, and get home. He was frightened and, frankly, too tired but eventually, he found enough energy to heave himself into an upright position and stay there. As he released his hands from his leg to move, the blood began pulsing out. He looked down at his leg, hopelessly. Somehow he felt detached from it - as if his body belonged to someone else. Unsure what else do to, he used his web shooters to try to smother the wound, stem the flow and buy some time. 

It took all of his reserves to slowly manoeuvre himself onto his hands and knees and then onto his feet, crying with the pain and the exertion. He shuffle-hopped to the edge of the building and with a heave pulled himself over the edge, using his web fluid to painstakingly descend to the shaded ground below. He travelled back down past the cat on the fire escape landing, and then beside by a large dumpster full of food. 

The dumpster stank, hot and putrifying leftovers giving off a stench which made Peter’s stomach turn. But as his feet hit the ground his legs crumpled beneath him, the last of his energy spent. As he sat there, grabbing for breath and watching the blood from his leg break the barrier his web fluid had created, he felt the darkness wash over him.

\-----------

It was a typical night at the compound for Tony Stark - it was 1.30am in the lab, with AC/DC blaring out the surround sound speakers. He always thought music from his favourite group, coupled with the early hours of the morning, brought the best results, and this night was no different as he made another breakthrough with the Vibranium donated to him by Wakanda.

He was very much taken out of his zone, though, when his phone began to ring and the face of Aunt May flashed on the screen. She never called, and certainly not at this hour.

“Hi May how are you?” he answered, trying to hide the worry in his voice.

May ignored the question. “Is Peter with you?”

“No… should he be? I haven’t heard from him all day as it happens.” Yup, really worried now. Still, don’t show it.

“Neither have I. It’s not like him, he knows how I am. After Ben… he knows he has to keep me updated. I just got home from my shift and the flat is how I left it this morning. He’s not been home, and he’s not answering my calls, and I cant —” May’s voice sped up, more and more panicked as she spoke.

“May, May just calm down OK I’m sure there’s a good reason for him not to be around, he’s probably with Ned making a short film about zombies or something,” Tony tried to reassure.

“I spoke with Ned. He’s not seen him since school.”

“Oh.” Tony’s mind was all over the place now. This was not good. “Ok, I’ll find him don’t worry. I’ll keep you posted,” he said as he hung up. There was no time to waste. 

Tony quickly suited up and set off downstate, and spent the journey trying to predict what on earth could have happened to Peter. As he tried to distract himself from thinking the worst, he pinned his hopes on one theory that maybe the heat had slowed him down and he’d find him just sleeping somewhere.

“FRIDAY, make contact with Peter’s suit.”

“As you wish, connecting with Karen…”

“Karen? His suit is called Karen?” he muttered to himself. That kid, he thought, smiling slightly.

Two bleeps. “You asked for me, Mr Stark?” Karen’s voice was now in Tony’s mask, gentle and kind. 

“Yes are you with Peter right now?”

“No, I’m afraid not. He took his mask off at approximately 4pm. His vitals at that point were dipping below 40%. I don’t know where he went after this point but I was disconnected on the corner of Norfolk St and Delancey and so I could not call you as I was offline.”

“Thanks Karen. FRIDAY, set co-ordinates as per Karen’s instruction and get the team to set up the med bay.” Tony felt the words catch in his throat as he spoke them.

Peter’s vitals were at 40%? That was nine hours ago. Tony’s heart was pounding now as he panicked he might be too late. Thrusters on, he made his way down the eastern side of Manhattan as fast as he could.

Landing on the roof of the building Karen had specified, he quickly spotted the mask, and a short distance away, a lot of blood. But no sign of Peter. His heart dropped.

“Peter!!!” he shouted, with no reply. He repeated the call but was met with more silence.

“Scan the area FRIDAY.”

“Sir, I’m detecting an exceptionally bright heat source at the base of this building on your right,” FRIDAY responded, a sense of urgency in the voice.

Tony rocketed off the top of the building and to the base, finding himself on a very dark alleyway, objects barely lit by the crescent moon. He took his suit off and began searching among the discarded items and bins when suddenly, he saw a foot in the distance.

“Peter!!!” 

Sprinting faster than he had done in a number of years, Tony raced to the prone boy, and immediately was hit by a foul smell and the sight of an unconscious Peter, sweating profusely and deathly pale. 

“Shit Peter what the hell happened,” he said, knowing he wouldn’t get an answer. He scanned the boy and noticed the remnants of dissolved web fluid on his leg and the deep angry wound which ran for what he could see was the entirety of his thigh.

“Wake up for me Pete...please wake up. Kid?” Tony gently tapped his face, with no response. He was beyond burning up, he was on fire. There was a pulse, but it was weak.

Tony knew he had to get the boy back to the compound, every second counted now if he was to survive. He got back in his suit, scooped Peter up as gently as he could and launched himself back in the direction of Avengers HQ.

As the pair passed the Manhattan skyline, Peter began to shiver in Tony’s arms, mumbling ineligible words and crying out in distress. It was frightening to watch and all the more frightening for Tony that for now, there was nothing he could do. 

“FRIDAY, can you summon Banner and Strange, tell them what’s happened. I’ll be arriving in ten minutes.”


	3. A welcoming party

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PLEASE forgive any medical inaccuracy!

“Kid you gotta stay with me ok?”

Nothing. Nothing came to ease Tony’s worry, and it hadn’t done for almost 10 minutes as Peter’s feverish mumblings had fallen away into desperate silence. He longed for the boy to look at him again with his ever hopeful innocence, but instead all he saw as he glanced down to check on him were glassy eyes staring off into a place unknown. Peter had no idea where he was, who he was with, or what was happening.

“Jeez Pete, please don’t do this to me,” Tony pleaded, tears welling and heart clenching with the pain of worry and anguish. 

Soon though, there would be proper help and as Tony approached Avengers HQ, he could see the hangar doors of the compound were already open. 

Bruce and Dr Strange were waiting there, along with Pepper, their silhouettes framed by the bright clinical lighting of the landing bay. 

As Tony flew in, he watched their faces turn from mild exasperation at being risen in the early hours, to pure horror.

“Take him!” Tony virtually shouted it, the panic clear. “He’s lost too much blood!”

Before anyone could respond, Dr Strange’s cloak whipped itself from the doctor’s shoulders, whooshed in Tony’s direction and wrapped itself around Peter’s limp form, before moving with almost missile speed towards the medical bay. 

What blood type is he?” Dr Strange exclaimed as the group ran in pursuit. “What do we have?”

“He has a mutated blood ,” Bruce said. “There’s no other blood like his. We took a unit for testing purposes and we started profiling it so we have about three quarters of a unit remaining…..”

“Christ,” Strange said, speeding down the corridor. “Ok well we’d best get that into him and stop the bleeding ASAP.”

By the time they got to the medbay, the cloak had already laid Peter on the surgical table and was waiting, an anxious aura around it, in the corner. 

Both Stephen and Bruce scrubbed up and donned gloves quickly and began to cut the suit from Peter’s body. 

“Jesus, he’s so hot to touch,” said Strange. “He’s got an infection on top of the hypovolemic shock Tony. This is not good.” 

Tony was stood in the corner, Pepper holding onto him tightly, as if somehow doing that would improve Peter’s chances.

Removing the suit leg confirmed Strange’s hunch. “Oh God....”

“What?” Tony snapped out of his worried daze.   
“What’s happened?”

“His leg is rotting.” Strange said, solemnly.

The sight of it made Tony sick. The wound may have been a straight line when it had originally been inflicted, but it was now grotesquely swollen, and all kinds of colours, from red and purple to tinges of green and black.

“You said he had accelerated healing, yes?” Strange asked matter-of-factly as he attached heart monitor pads to Peter’s chest and took his blood pressure.

“Yeah,” Bruce confirmed. “And he’s never sick.”

But Peter was now. Deathly sick.

“OK so I can’t get rid of infection with my magic I’m afraid. Can we get him stabilised, I’ll take some swabs from his leg, and some blood - the minimum I can take for testing - and then Bruce, if you can just try to clean the wound as much as you can, suture any vessels you find to stop the blood flow and get that unit of blood you took back into him. We’ll have to leave the wound open until we know what we’re dealing with, giving him plenty of fluids, and get ice packs to try to get that temperature down. And let’s just give him the strongest antibiotics we have. 

“And everyone — please get scrubbed up and clean, put masks on. Right away please? He cannot afford to get a single extra cell of bacteria right now.”

Strange, despite his shaky hands and steely persona, was clearly a man of action and a man of great integrity, Tony knew. He was known before his accident as one of the world’s top neurosurgeons and although conventional trauma surgery and treatment wasn’t his known forte he knew how to act quickly in the best interests of the patient. He swiftly gathered all he could to test the boy, and took samples. 

“Bruce get these to the lab and tested. I will return shortly.” And with that, he created a portal and disappeared.

“He’ll be back, right?” said Bruce. 

“Course he will,” said Tony, now sitting in the corner with a tearful Pepper and struggling to keep his own emotions in check. “We better get ourselves cleaned up.”


	4. Time is of the essence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hope you're enjoying! 
> 
> Just so you know this is pretty much a straight story of injury and recovery... if you like that sort of thing ;)
> 
> In this instalment, Strange is a busy man.

Wong was making sure his books were dust free and in order. As with most nights, and despite repeated warnings, Strange’s young trainees at Kamar-Taj had a very annoying habit of never putting things back where they came from.

Listening to the latest Taylor Swift album he was rather lost in his duties, but his routine was interrupted when suddenly a portal appeared, and Dr Strange sprinted through.

“Wong I need everything you got on arachnids. We don’t have much time!” he exclaimed in panic. His tone, the sense of urgency, immediately concerned Wong. Having known Strange for as long as he had, he knew he was always unflappable in times of crisis. This time, was different.

He snapped straight into action, immediately by darting off to the corner of the library where all things nature and medicine were held. He brought back three books of varying thickness and age. “These should cover all your bases. Why do you need them?”

“Spiderman is hurt, and badly. He’s got an infection which must be exceptionally aggressive as he doesn’t normally get sick and he’s not healing as he would do either. He’s lost so much blood....” Dr Strange was furiously scanning pages, no pattern to his research — only pure desperation.

“So you’re thinking you’ve got to look for spider illnesses?” Wong queried. “I used to own some spiders when I was a child. They don’t get ill often but you know they’re always at their weakest when it’s humid?”

Strange’s face shot up, the penny dropping in his lightning-quick mind. There was a moment of acknowledgement between the two, before Strange bundled up the books, made another portal and ran towards it.

“Don’t take the —!” Wong couldn’t finish the sentence before the portal closed. “Books. Why do I bother...”

Strange portalled straight into the medbay.

“Get the humidity in here down, get the temperature down, we have to make this room as dry as we can - NOW!”

Four faces looked at him almost vacantly for a second, rooted to the spot. Pepper was the first to react. “FRIDAY set medbay humidity to zero!” she barked. “Right away, Miss Potts.” A gentle hum kicked in through the air conditioning unit, and as the minutes passed so the air in the room became drier, noticeable by all.

With that Strange took himself and the books into the lab where his test samples almost fully cultured. He’d never seen anything like it through the microscope, thousands of purple and red blobs moving and multiplying at an alarming rate.

Scanning through a book on insects he found the section on spiders, confirming Wong’s claim about humidity — and general thermoregulation issues — but also about proximity to out of date, rotting food. However, despite his hope, he found no remedies to match this most specific of illness. Most spiders died of these ailments. He hoped Peter’s mutated powers would make him an exception to the rule.

Back in the medbay, Peter had been hooked up to a range of machines and fluids, his temperature enough to kill any regular human at an unprecedented 112 degrees - despite the cooling mats around his body - and the heart monitor beeping faster than it should. Beads of sweat lined his forehead and top lip, and his hair was soaking wet. He should be dead, not least seizing, but somehow he was clinging on to life and deathly still. 

His injured leg was covered in a sterile gauze but Strange inspected it and while it had been cleaned, there was much more to do.

“Tony I need you to focus now,” he said calmly, crouching down to meet the Avenger where he sat. “Tell me everything you know, doesn’t matter how small. Where did you find him, was there a weapon?”

“Erm...god um, I can’t think,” Tony said, blankly. There was a long pause as Tony tried to align his thoughts. Strange waited patiently. “So when I got there I was on the roof, and I saw the blood and mask. No weapon as far as I could see but I didn’t think to look, I’m so sorry.”

Strange ignored the apology. “Anything else?”

“He was in an alleyway below. It really smelled. Like, bad. There was a massive bin next to him and...oh god it makes me sick just thinking about it.” Tony retched.

“No that’s great Tony, thank you.” He turned to Bruce. “How much antibiotic has he had?”

“He’s had everything we can give him based on our notes. He needs four times as much as a regular person because of his metabolism. We’ve given him a cocktail of different compounds including fluoroquinolones to maximise the effect. Certainly, it seems to have stabilised his temperature but I’m not sure what else at this stage.” He sighed.

“And pain relief?”

“We’ve given him the compound we have for Steve, but we’re not sure if that’ll be enough for him. His metabolism is so fast, he’s likely to burn through it, and we can’t risk overdose.”

Strange rubbed his forehead in concentration. “Right. So I would suggest we try a cocktail here, intravenously as well as via an epidural anaesthetic for the surgery - should give us enough time to get the wound fixed up. We’ll worry about further pain relief later on, and let’s just do what we have to now. We need to deal with his leg before gangrene completely sets in, we have very little time. Now he’s had some antibiotics, we should take some more samples and see what the progress is. The last set were...alarming to say the least.”

Pepper took Tony, still in a stunned daze, outside. Bruce and Strange turned the medbay into a surgical theatre, hooked up to a ventilator to regulate his breathing, and anaesthetised him. Then, under Strange’s specific instruction, Bruce began to cut.

 

\----------

Tony Stark was all about knowledge. To know was to win - at anything in life. That’s what his father had taught him, that’s how he got where he was. Knowing more than the next guy, in business, in technology and in life, was the key to success, he thought.   
So when he didn’t know something, it gnawed at him, pushed him to work all hours to find out, made his stomach turn because not knowing meant not being in control.

Now, with Peter at death’s door in the operating theatre, and no way of knowing how he was or how they would save him, or how he could help — it was like a crushing, twisting, toxic symbiote of anxiety and stress contorting inside him. He couldn’t sit still, couldn’t eat, couldn’t drink, couldn’t make eye contact with others. He paced the hallway outside the medbay with such speed and ferocity, onlookers thought he would create a trench in the concrete. 

Locked deep in his thoughts and mumbling to himself of all the ways his own technology had failed Peter, he felt like he’d failed so catastrophically that the boy….if he survived… would never speak to him again. While he’d never expressed it to the teenager, or indeed to himself, the agony of seeing him injured, or even entertaining the thought he might not make it, brought a huge lump to his throat and a pain in his damaged heart so deep and aching he would have mistaken it for a stab wound. 

Suddenly, a voice pulled him out of his own personal hurricane. 

“Tone, you gotta sit down.”

Rhodey gently gripped his friend’s shoulder just as he was about to turn in his pacing up and down the corridor. 

“What are you doing here?”

“I was up and about to get a drink when FRIDAY told me, I couldn’t just go to bed after that now could I? Anyway, I think you and I should go get that drink. Maybe something stronger than a glass of milk?”

“I just can’t leave, OK. I can’t sit still, not while he’s in there. What if he dies? That’s on me, I didn’t think about humidity, I just didn’t think!”

“You gotta stop beating yourself up, Tony. It’s not helping you and it sure as hell isn’t helping him.” Rhodey now had both his shoulders in his grasp, forcing the billionaire to look his friend in the eye.

“He’s my responsibility, Rhodey.”

“I get that, I totally understand, but shit happens, OK? You can’t wrap the kid up in bubble wrap for the rest of his life. All you can do is be there for him when he comes round, be the man he wants you to be. He looks up to you enough, it’s now time to live up to the hype, eh?”

“I don’t know if I can…” Tony’s voice faltered.

“Sure you can. You must. For both your sakes. Now, come on let’s get that whiskey, and something to eat. FRIDAY will tell us when he’s out of theatre, won’t you FRIDAY?”

“Absolutely Colonel Rhodes,” the AI replied. 

They waited.


	5. Waiting for the day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you're enjoying! 
> 
> Anyone see the BTS scene between Tom and RDJ at the weekend, another improvised reunion scene and Tony gives Peter a proper Dad kiss - MY HEART! Why didn't they use that scene?!?

The waiting was the hardest part. Time, they say, is a construct, and on this occasion, Tony felt like it had been stopped just to add extra stress. It had been 90 minutes since he found the kid in the alley, but it may as well have been 90 hours given how strung out and emotionally spent he felt. 

Rhodes, the ever-present and steady force in Tony’s life, kept Tony from falling into complete despair and, as always, provided the practical support and assistance he needed. He helped Tony compose himself enough to put the call out to the rest of the Avengers to update them. But calling May was a step too far for him, so Rhodes volunteered to impart the grim news.

“Hi...is this Mrs Parker?” Rhodes said in his calmest voice, Tony noting his softer tone. “This is Colonel Rhodes, I’m a good friend of Tony’s… he’s a bit sidelined at the minute.”

Tony couldn’t hear exactly what May was saying but he could hear her tone getting higher and higher in pitch, clearly in a panic.

“Mrs Parker we found Peter, he is with us now —” 

Tony heard the exclaimed “Thank God” over the receiver.

Rhodes interjected. “Mrs Parker I’m afraid we found Peter in quite a state. He’s currently in surgery. Can you be ready for Happy to pick you up?”

The noises from the phone went silent. 

“Mrs Parker? Are you OK?... Good. Can you get yourself a drink, preferably with some sugar in it? Listen, we will have someone with you as soon as we can, OK? I promise you he’s in the best hands. We’ll see you soon, and take care.”

And with that, the deed was done. Tony felt all his emotions practically fall to the pit of his stomach for the woman. How much pain she must have been through with her husband, and now with her nephew. He felt so responsible. He would make sure she was looked after. He liked her, very much.

\---------------  
The surgery seemed to take an agonising amount of time as keeping Peter stable throughout proved almost as big a test as removing all the affected flesh from his leg itself. The work had to be thorough to the nth degree. Not a cell had to remain, else the infection would return, and Peter risked losing his leg entirely. The kid wasn’t making it easy for them though, his temperature and blood pressure fluctuating wildly at times, not to mention keeping him under before he burned off any of the anaesthetic they’d given him.

By the time they’d finished, Peter’s smaller blood vessels were closed off, but a whole section of his quadricep muscle had to be removed, as well as a good chunk of his skin. It wasn’t pretty — Strange was annoyed his hands would not allow him to do a neater job than Bruce — but then again, all that mattered was making sure the infection was gone. 

The surgery, combined with the antibiotic cocktail working overtime and the room humidity down to zero, helped Peter turn a bit of a corner. In the hours that followed, his temperature finally began to drop, and Strange could swear the tiniest tint of pink returned to his lips. He was a long way from being healthy again but at this moment, just before the dawn, his chances of surviving were as good as they could be.

Strange, weary from the events of the night, left Peter in recovery with Bruce to go update Tony.

He flexed his aching hands, massaging them to try to relieve the pain that holding a suction tube to Peter’s leg had caused. When he got to the lounge he found not only Tony and Pepper but also Rhodes Steve, Thor,, Clint, Scott, Natasha, Sam, Vision and Wanda, Carol and Happy. And sitting next to Tony, small and stunned, a brunette lady who he assumed was Aunt May. Tired eyes looked at him with hope and desperation.

Strange made a beeline straight for her. He wasn’t known for his bedside manner in his previous life but this was different, he cared about the kid in the recovery room, as did everyone else, and the worry was shared. He sat beside her, reached out a shaky hand and held hers.

“Hello Mrs Parker, I’m Doctor Strange, and I’ve been working with Bruce to get Peter stabilised,” he said quietly. “I’m not going to lie to you and say he’s fine, I’m afraid. He’s far from it, and I would say he’s still in a critical condition. But the surgery went as well as we could have hoped, and now he’s got a chance. We’ve done everything we can, given him everything we can, and now it’s up to him to pull through.”

May couldn’t even look at him. A tear ran off the end of her nose and into her lap.

“Do you need to know more now? Or are you happy for me to leave it at that for the time being?” Strange continued, soft and caring. “Bruce and I will be with him for as long as he needs. You can ask me questions at any time, ok?”

May nodded. She said nothing, so Strange decided it was enough information for the time being. He rubbed the back of May in reassurance, quietly stood and discreetly ushered Tony to a quiet corner, Natasha taking the space Strange had left behind, and holding her tight.

“I’m guessing you want to know the full details, Tony?” Strange whispered so no one else could hear. “It might be easier for May to hear it from you later.”

Tony nodded wearily. “That’s fine. So, what’s the news?”

“From my limited knowledge on spider health and care-“

Tony recoiled in confusion. “Wait Doc...spider health?”

“Peter looks like a regular kid but you and I know his entire DNA was altered by that spider bite, right?” Strange said. “When he presented such aggressive symptoms, logic suggested it could be an alien infection to humans, something that might infiltrate the system of a spider instead. Do you understand where I’m coming from?”

“Yes,” Tony nodded. “Makes sense.”

“Thanks to my extensive library back at Kamar Taj and my yet again surprisingly knowledgeable librarian, I learned there are two main causes of spider illness.

“The first is thermoregulation, or more specifically, humidity. Now, the unseasonable weather in New York has affected everyone but for Peter, this was a real threat to his immune system and this is where I think his healing abilities were compromised. He may well have been feeling unwell in the lead up to whatever happened to him but until he wakes and I can ask him, I won’t be able to find that out.

“The second is proximity to rotten food. That Peter collapsed by the bin you mentioned probably set a chain of events into action that caused this catastrophic infection.”

Tony listened intently. “I’ll be able to gather the information you want from his mask, his AI records everything he sees and says,” he added. “So if he was feeling unwell he may have indicated it to her.”

“Well it would help me build a more precise picture — should this ever happen again, god forbid. I certainly suggest Peter not engage in combat when the humidity reaches a certain point, which you can decide later once we know more about what levels affect him. Either that or install some kind of new air drying technology in his suit.”

“That I can do,” Tony said, internally giving himself a punch in the stomach for not thinking to do that in the first place. “You think he’ll be fit to patrol again then? He loves being Spiderman.”

“Right now I think it’s important to still make future plans, despite the current situation. It’ll be good for his morale and for yours. But he is very sick, Tony. We’ve had to cut away a significant part of his thigh - and he’s going to need further surgeries and significant therapy. However, with careful monitoring and his healing abilities hopefully restored as the infection subsides, I would hope he’ll be back to some kind of normal.”

Tony reached out a hand, and Strange shook it. Tony felt the tremble. “I know better than anyone what a long recovery looks like and feels like,” Strange said, acknowledging Tony’s recognition of his nerve damage. “And sometimes you just have to accept a ‘new normal’. Even though I hit rock bottom and thought my life was over, I discovered a new way, and I can do more now than I ever did before. I’ll work with him to understand what it means to adapt and grow stronger for it, I promise.”

“Thanks, Doc,” Tony said. “Now let’s go look at the kid’s mask, see what we can find.”


	6. Calls and care

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bit of a longer chapter here for you all!
> 
> Enjoy....(well as much as you can enjoy Peter’s suffering!)

The bright lights and hum of Tony’s lab were a great contrast to the dark mahogany and tranquility of the Sanctum. Strange couldn’t help but be impressed with the technology around him as he inspected the latest iteration of Stark’s now infamous suit. 

He watched as Tony ignored it all as if it were junk, his eyes fixed on a bank of computer screens on the left hand side of the lab. He plugged the mask into the system via a miniscule portal at the back. Instantly it began running off all the information from the previous 24 hours on one of the screens, and images looking like CCTV on another. “Good morning Mr Stark, how can I help you?” said a female voice, not dissimilar to FRIDAY’s, Strange noted. 

“I need to look at your footage from yesterday please?”

“Sure thing. I can begin from Peter’s alarm at 6am if you’d like, sir,” said the voice. 

“No not necessary, just start from the end of his school day please Karen, until you were turned off.”

Strange’s eyebrow raised. “Karen? Why Karen?”

“Who knows,” Tony said, exasperated, as the first images began streaming through on the screen.

For the first time, Tony was watching New York through Peter’s eyes, initially stunned by the speed with which he flew through the air. The jerky movements of moving from web to web, the trajectory of the swing making his stomach flip as if he were on a rollercoaster. He wondered how Peter ever came down from the adrenaline rush. A few minutes in, the data streams alongside the footage began to show the teen’s core temperature rising, his overall vitals drop and the fluidity of his swinging becoming more sluggish and jolting. 

“Why did he go if this was happening?,” Strange asked, noting the same changes. “He must have known something wasn’t right.”

“This is Peter we’re talking about, he ignores everything, including his own body,” Tony replied.   
“It’s been a problem since day one and the main source of my stress these days.”

At this point they heard him ask Karen for his vitals and his promise to rest once he’d investigated. They both sighed at the irony of his words. If only he’d known what was to come.

It was tough to watch the final half hour of the footage, not so much the incident itself but the pained whimpers, laboured breathing and momentary blackouts as Peter lay bleeding out on the roof. They heard Karen warning him about calling Tony and heard Peter claim he would get himself home, and then the screen went blank. 

“So the kid was drastically overheated by the time he got to the scene and that reduced his abilities. Then he gets an open wound and ends up stuck next to a pile of rubbish which allowed the infection to run riot?” Tony asked rhetorically.

“All indicators point to that being the likely causes of his illness,” Strange said. “That said, even without the leg wound I think he would have been in deep trouble. This data has been very helpful Tony, and backs up my hypothesis. At least we’re definitely sure what has caused this, and we now know what to tell him to avoid going forward.”

The pair left his workshop and walked back to the lounge, to rejoin the group. The sun was on the rise and a warm orange glow bathed the space in soft light. The coffee pot was in constant use, while Clint and Scott were silently contemplating a large shot of whiskey each. No one was talking.

“We all need to support May, support Peter,” Steve said calmly, breaking the silence. “I suggest we sit with Peter and May on a rota basis. Tony, Strange and Bruce need rest now. We can give them that, and make sure Peter and May are not alone.”

“That’s kind, Rogers, and a good plan,” Strange said, gratefully taking a mug of black coffee from Pepper. “I can call on a little help for the nursing, too. May I use your phone?” 

Strange knew better than just to create a portal back to the hospital he’d called home for so many years. Instead he direct dialled the ER at Metro General.

“Yes can I speak with Christine Palmer please?” A pause. “Christine, hi, um, sorry to call you out of the blue like this. No no there’s nothing wrong with me. But I do need your help. Are you able to get out of work for a couple of days? Say you’re sick or something?...I can’t say right now.” Another pause. “I know, I know. It’s a lot to ask I realise but it’s really important and I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t. Trust me? Ok, I’ll create a portal in the cleaning cupboard in half an hour, just walk through. I’ll explain everything when you get here. Thanks… bye.”

“Ok I have some nursing cover,” Strange told Tony. “She’s a friend of mine, you can trust her. We used to work together.”

“Right, ok. Thanks,” Tony said. “So, we.. can we see him now? May should go first.”

Strange nodded. Tony let May hold onto him as they walked to the 

As the pair donned gowns and gloves and washed their hands in the sink outside, Strange said quietly: “I should warn you both, there’s a lot of tubes and machines around him at this time. These are to monitor him carefully, administer the medicine he still needs and manage his breathing. Plus he has a feeding tube as we are concerned about weight loss, this is another common issue with illnesses affecting spiders, but it’s hopefully only a temporary measure.”

Strange opened the door for them and May went to walk in. She turned to Tony, a look in her face etched with fear. “Do you want to go in alone or do you want me to come with you?” Tony said kindly. “Please come. I don’t want to see him alone, not right now.” She gripped Tony’s hand and they walked in together.

As Strange closed the door behind them he heard the quiet sobs from both. 

Half an hour later, right on time, Christine arrived, the portal Strange had set up for her leading straight into the lounge. Clearly coming through portals wasn’t unfamiliar to her, but being faced with all the Avengers, was. Still in her scrubs, with her hair messily tied into a bun, she nervously threw up a small hand. “Hi, I’m Christine, Stephen sent for me…”

“Welcome Christine, I’m sorry we’re meeting under such circumstances,” Steve said, shaking her hand and looking down at the petite woman. 

“You’re...uh… you’re Captain America, right?” Christine flushed. She’d not long got her head completely around Stephen’s new life, and now she was in the absolute deep end of it.

“Strange should be here soon, he’s with Tony and May right now.”

“Ok.. so what am I here for? He never said, just that it was important.”

“Well, one of our colleagues, our youngest member actually, he’s in the medbay and in a critical condition. They’ve done surgery on his leg but he needs really careful monitoring.”

“Ok,” she said, running her hands along her hair, patting the bun into a neater shape. “Well can you take me to him, I need to get started by the sounds of things. You should know I’m an ER nurse, specialising in trauma, so he’ll be in good hands.”

“Thank you, Christine. And as long as you’re here, please, just make yourself at home. We’ll set up a place for you to stay as well.”

Christine acknowledged the offer with a smile, and then the two walked in the direction of the medbay, in silence. She had no idea what to talk to this man about, and could barely make eye contact given how gorgeous he was in real life, and had no clue what she would be faced with when she got there. Nerves began to grow in the pit of her stomach, the same nerves which fuelled her 12-hour shifts, and helped her help others. Channeling the energy, she pushed through the doors. 

Traditionally, Christine understood that with things to do with Stephen, she always had to keep an open mind, that nothing was as it seemed, and to expect the unexpected. Even knowing all that, she couldn’t have prepared herself for what she found.

In the room, she saw Strange and another man, stocky with curly greying hair, working frantically around a small, pale boy. The man she knew to be Tony Stark, and a petite brunette woman were sitting by the bed, still and expectant.

Approaching, she quickly took note of the numbers displayed on the monitors - infection, right - and inhaled sharply when she saw his temperature - 109….fuck.

“Stephen what do you need me to do?”

Stephen looked up for the first time and noticed her. He had a look on his face Christine had not seen in some years, the look he used to have before the accident robbed him of his glittering medical career. She always knew that when he had his game face on, it was serious. 

“Hi Christine, I’m sorry to pull you from your work but as you can see we’re in a unique situation here. Could you get some new cooling pads for me to pack around him? He’s burned through these ones.” Strange pointed to a huge wall of boxes, full to the brim with supplies and handed her a bundle of the old cooling pads, which she noted were now hot. 

“Sure…”

She dumped the old pads in the bin and quickly found the draw containing the new ones, emptying it completely and cocooning the boy in them, starting from the head down. “How is he not seizing Stephen, how is he not dead?”

Tony and May looked at her in shock. “Sorry,” she said to the pair. “This is just not normal for me, forgive me.”

The duo looked at her with understanding, then returned their focus onto the boy.

“I don’t know to be honest,” Strange said, continuing the conversation. “He’s...enhanced. He’s Spiderman.”

“Oh my god.” she paled. “He’s just… a kid?”

“Yup. Kid with incredible strength it’d seem. He should be dead already, that’s he’s got this far is a miracle. This is Bruce, Dr Banner, by the way.”

“Oh, hey Sir,” she said, shaking his hand. “Just, whatever you need me to do I can be here, OK?”

“Thank you, miss…?” Bruce asked quietly.

“Palmer. Christine Palmer,” she said with a small smile. “Listen, can you give me a brief rundown of what we know here, and then you guys can get some rest. You both look exhausted, as do you,” she nodded in the direction of Mr Stark and the unknown lady. “I can take it from there. And, I’ll call you if anything changes, OK?”

“Thank you again Christine, I know this wasn’t easy for you to arrange,” Strange said.

“No worries Stephen, he needs my help, our help.”

“Tony, Mrs Parker, would it be possible for you to leave now, I need to go through everything here with nurse Palmer,” Strange said quietly.” I promise I will fill you both in fully but right now, Peter is our priority.”

Reluctantly, they both agreed and quietly exited the room, but hovered outside. Christine, Strange and Bruce could hear them reassuring each other.   
Peter’s care was now the trio’s sole focus. Bruce and Strange went through everything with her, the circumstances leading to the boy’s condition, what they thought was wrong with him, the issues regarding his enhancements which both hampered and helped progress, his leg surgery. Her quick mind processed as much as it would allow, taking furious notes and trying to think of ways to help the kid before Strange and Bruce took the opportunity to get some rest. 

Left alone with the boy, she took Peter’s hand. “I don’t know you, and you don’t know me but we’re going to work together, OK? Just me and you now against the world,” she said, care in her voice. She sighed, and got to work.

As the dawn became morning it became time to make some calls. May called the school and told the lie that Peter had been involved in a road traffic accident on his way to the internship, and that she would call again after the weekend to give them an update. 

But calling Ned was a bridge too far for her, so she asked Steve to relay the news. She knew he would be calm and collected enough to do it. 

“Hello is this Ned?”  
“Yeah who’s this?”

“Ned this is Steve Rogers calling, I —”

“OH MY GOD CAPTAIN AMERICA!!!” Steve pulled the phone away from his ear, such was Ned’s loud excitement and momentary hyperventilation. 

“Um, thank you sir, for calling…. Wait, why are you calling me? Is this some kind of special detention because I swear, it wasn’t really porn and —”

“Ned, please can you just calm down for a second, and no it’s not about...porn. I’m afraid I’m calling about Pete.”

He could almost hear Ned’s face drop. “What? What’s wrong?”

“He’s been hurt in action, he’s...um, he’s had surgery but he’s very sick right now.”

“Oh God is he going to be OK?”

“We hope so.” Steve couldn’t mask his solemn tone.

“I need to see him, can I see him?”

“Sure, kid. I’ll have Happy come pick you up after school. I’m sorry our first conversation wasn’t under better circumstances.”

“Um, no worries Sir. I suppose I’ll see you later,” Ned said distantly as he hung up, his mind clearly with his stricken friend. 

When Ned dreamed of speaking to Captain America for the first time, it wasn’t like this. He sat in the lounge of his family home in shock,, his mum asking what was wrong — but of course Ned couldn’t say. He just left for school, numb. 

Wandering the halls of Midtown High, he moved in a daze, sights and sounds around him blurry and muffled. He was racked with worry and didn’t really know what to do with himself except tell lies to MJ and the decathlon team that Peter was off sick — although that technically wasn’t lying — watch the clock until 3pm and text Peter, over and over again. He knew he wouldn’t get a reply, but he hoped Peter would, at some point, get back to him. 

Finally, the bell rang for him to leave school and sure enough, outside the gates, was the black Audi he’d seen Peter get into time and time again. Happy was stood outside, leaning against the door. Normally there was a look of pure annoyance on his face, but this time, he gave a half smile.

“Um Mr Happy, I’m Ned, I’m Pete’s friend?” Ned rushed over, putting out his hand to shake Happy’s, and Happy was impressed by the boy’s manners. “Just Happy is fine,” he replied. “You OK?”

“Yeah I’m OK just worried about Pete, is there any news?”

“None yet that I know of.. Mr Stark will fill you in when we get there. Probably best you hear it all from him.”

The car ride to the compound was in silence, until they arrived. Ned was overawed by the building in front of him, and what was inside. Happy gave him a guest pass and took him through the gargantuan lobby area. This part he’d seen when there had been press conferences on TV, but soon they were past that and towards the areas no-one got to see. Ned would have been excited, had it been under totally different circumstances.

Eventually, after what felt like the longest walk ever, Ned and Happy reached the lounge, where they were faced by all the Avengers, and May. 

May went straight to Ned and hugged him tight. “It’s so good to see you Ned, does your mum know you’re here?”

“Yeah I told her Peter had been allowed to take a friend to his internship, she thinks I’m having a sleepover with you.”

“Good boy,” said May. “Let me take you to see him.” She led Ned away before he could be introduced to the group. That would have to wait, and Ned didn’t mind one bit. He just wanted to see his friend.

When he got to the room, May explained what he’d find inside, and helped him clean his hands and put on the mask and surgical gown.

Opening the door, he saw the back of Tony, as he faced Peter. Peter who was lying there. Pale, and small, and swamped by so many machines and wires, and a brunette nurse who silently worked around him. As he approached, Tony heard him and turned round. He looked tired, unkept. Ned had never seen the great Stark look this way. And it scared him a bit. “Oh, hey kid,” the billionaire said wearily. “Come, grab a seat.”

Ned just stood beside the bed, unable to find words. The nurse, who looked tired but kind, grabbed a chair from the corner. “Come on, sit down, and Tony here can explain. If you have any questions, just ask, OK?”. 

Tony explained everything, what surgery he’d had, how his temperature was still high, how he found him. Ned couldn’t help but let a tear fall from his face. Tony saw, and patted the teen on the knee. 

“He’s fighting as best he can, and we’ve given him every medicine in the book that we can, and we have the best docs and the best kit and he has you and May and us. So, he’s got to be OK, hasn’t he?”

“I hope so, cause I miss him.”

“We all do. It’s too quiet around here.”

And so Ned joined the vigil, and the days passed.   
Slowly, Peter’s temperature began to drop to something closer to normal — although watching him go through the ravages of fever was more than most could bear. There were times when he remained completely still but dripping with sweat, and other times when he’d appear to be awake but vacantly staring, shivering violently, mumbling garbled words and crying out. Then there was the more scary episodes where he was thrash around, almost in the grip of a terrible nightmare. When those happened, it took Steve and Thor to hold him down to stop him doing any more damage to his still healing leg. Eventually though, and to the relief of everyone, the fever broke, the humidity in the room could be risen back to a regular level, and then he started to breathe on his own again. 

But with his body still working overtime to fight the remaining infection, he remained unconscious, only momentarily giving signs of life when his analgesics began to wear off and the pain set in.

Thanks to these small improvements, Bruce, Strange and Christine were finally able to conduct the additional surgeries they needed to, as he was strong enough for further anaesthetic. They further cleaned the wound, did repairs to the remaining tissue and some nerve work, to try to minimise any long-lasting damage, although that wasn’t a guarantee. After six days, Peter’s healing factor appeared to be kicking back in, as his skin showed substantial regrowth at the very top of the wound, working downwards. The scarring wasn’t pretty, but it was a start.

All they needed now was for Peter to wake up.


	7. Emerging from the black

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A short update for you :)

There was no sense of time, just blackness. 

Occasionally this blackness, this nothing, was interrupted by the faint murmurings of what Peter recognised as a fuzzy and faint version of his Spider-sense. He had no idea what the murmurings were for — at certain times it was paired with a longing, aching pain, which presented itself almost like an aura, sometimes he felt as though something was pushing him down, and then there were the strange flashes of nightmares appearing, weird and frightening and all-encompassing. But none of it was enough to snap Peter out of the nothingness, and he remained locked in the black. 

Then, there was a change. For an indeterminate amount of time, it was as if he’d been broken up into a million atoms, floating in the ether, and now those atoms were starting to reform, reigniting his senses. It started with pain, the aura of it now concentrating in a single place, burning with a dull intensity. The feeling of fabric on his toes, and his fingers, a slight breeze on his face. Taste was next, or at least something like that. He felt the dryness in his mouth and a feeling of underuse. Then sounds — the occasional beep and muffled voices became more frequent and more clear — before finally, a milky light seemed to penetrate his eyelids, calling on him to respond. With a huge effort he managed to open them to slits, but what he could see was too bright, and too blurry.

A groan that he didn't know he was harbouring escaped his throat.

“Pete? Pete, can you hear me? Squeeze my hand if you can?” Peter vaguely recognised the voice, but in his semi-conscious state, he couldn’t quite work out who it was. He heard a sort of happy sigh as he moved his fingers absently around whatever it was he could feel on his palm. “Oh thank God, Peter just take your time OK.” At the same time, the lights seemed to dim.

Peter groaned again.

“Are you in pain? Strange and Bruce are coming OK? Easy now, don’t worry. We’re all here and you’re safe. You had us scared.”

“Sss….rry,” Peter pushed the word from his lips as he tried to open his eyes further. It was only then that he could put a face to the voice as someone who looked like Tony, only older somehow and wearing a paper mask, came into view, his eyes etched with worry and exhaustion. 

“No apologies, kid. It's good to see you awake.”

Next thing he knew there was a whooshing sound, a beam of light to the right of him momentarily making him wince, and another familiar voice, this time, female. “Oh Pete!! Oh honey there you are!” A hand rubbed through his hair, and then a kiss to his forehead. He smelled a familiar perfume. 

“More sleep I think May, he’s already exhausted and all he’s done is try to say sorry,” he heard Tony say quietly. Peter wanted to say more, get his aunt’s attention. As he tried to say May’s name, another groan came out instead.

“Oh sweetheart, you just rest now. We’ll be here when you wake again,” he heard May say, voice wavering, with a sniff. She must be crying, he thought. Bit not good.

As Strange and Christine entered to check him over and, on Tony’s orders, up his pain medication, Peter had already fallen back to sleep.

......

The next time Peter woke, it was dark in the room. Opening eyes was less of a struggle, but the burning pain was still there. He couldn’t place it, his senses disoriented and feeling almost out of his own body. His thoughts were fuzzy, and he daren’t try to move. All he could see was the tiled ceiling, so he tried to turn his head to see more. Everything was fuzzy and dominated by the smell of disinfectant which burned his nostrils. But he couldn’t help but notice Doctor Strange laying on the floor asleep. Suddenly, from his left, a soothing blue translucent form came towards him. He wondered if he was dreaming but then, the form came closer, looking just like the man asleep in the corner. 

“Hey Peter, no need to be alarmed, this is my astral form,” Strange said softly and quietly, reading the confusion in Peter’s face. “By being in my astral form, my body can rest but I can watch over you at the same time. I can come back into our dimension instead if you want?”

Peter frowned slightly, furrowing his brow as he tried to find the energy to speak, although no words came out. Somehow Strange knew what that meant, and floated back to his body to become one again.

Within seconds, Strange sat up from the foam mattress laid out in the corner and came to Peter’s bedside. Peter had always found Strange a serious and mysterious man, but this time he was… different somehow.

“How do you feel, Peter?” Strange said as he raised the hospital bed slightly so he could give him a sip of water.

“I...” Peter said, his voice rasping and dry. He coughed, wincing at the movement. “Wha... happnd?” Strange waited to see if Peter could remember it himself and was about to speak when Peter's face screwed up in concentration and pushed the words out. 

“Roof… leg....leg!” Peter pulled at the covers as best he could, revealing the loose gauze over his thigh and Strange watched as he tried to pick at the edge, contemplating whether to look or not. Instead, Peter slowly moved his hand away, choosing not to see. 

“How long?”

“Almost nine days. We almost lost you, young man,” Strange said. “When you didn’t go home, May called Tony and he went to search for you. He found you surrounded by rotten shawerma and your own blood. By the time he got you back here your leg wound had become necrotic.”

Peter gulped. His eyes drooped with tiredness, the conversation already draining him of his depleted energy. “Sorry.”

“What for? The body will do what it needs to when under attack, it’ll shut down. You weren’t to know you were already suffering infection when you left to answer Karen’s report.”

“Already infected? What with?” he slurred. 

“The spider DNA in you reacts as a spider would - and spiders get ill either when they’re very cold, or they’re in high humidity. That’s why your vitals were dropping on your way to the incident.”

Peter was trying to concentrate. He had so many questions but he’d have to sleep again soon. “Doc? What happened to my leg?”

“Well, I can see you’re fighting to stay awake so how about I tell you about that when you’re next up? The only thing you need to know is that it’s still there and it’s going to be ok.” Strange ran a shaky hand through Peter’s hair. “Get some sleep, kid.”

As Peter slept, Thor volunteered to take over the vigil, even though he was the first to admit he didn’t know how to deal with the Spiderling, as he called him, should he wake again. But, it gave Strange the chance to chat with May, Tony and Ned who’d ended up staying for the duration, Happy taking him to and from school to maintain the premise that all was well. Strange liked Ned, as he clearly idolised everyone else in the compound, but was here first and foremost for his friend. He wasn’t a selfish person, he was kind. Good things would come to him in life, Strange felt.

He took the three of them to a cosy corner of Tony’s extensive lounge, summoning with his magic a pot of soothing honey tea, just like The Ancient One made for him on their first encounter. 

“So I spoke with Peter a half hour ago, he woke for a short time and was able to have a small drink of water. He asked what had happened and I filled him in, but his final question was about his leg and I said he shouldn’t worry and to get some sleep.

“Tomorrow I will tell him everything but I feel I should speak to you now, while he’s resting, about what’s on the road ahead. He’s had a significant portion of his quad muscle removed and that is going to affect the way his leg performs and in turn, how he walks for a time. This is because the quad muscles affect leg strength through the knee so he’ll now always have a weaker right knee.”

The trio nodded, taking in the information intently.

“Physical therapy and the assistance of a leg brace will be required during the initial phase, and he’ll need regular physio for his lifetime to keep the remaining muscle healthy. Of course, as a teenager and as Spiderman, these changes in performance might affect his self-esteem and in turn his mental health. And this is where you come in. He’s going to need you.” 

The first to respond was Ned. 

“I’m so glad he’s OK. That’s all I care about. And I’m not going to treat him any differently. Knowing him as long as I have, I’m kind of thinking that’s what he’d want anyway,” he said. “Plus I have some cool new Lego we can build - Hogwarts!”

“Very good,” Tony said. It was all too easy to forget Pete was just a kid sometimes, Lego sounded like a very good way to keep things a bit lighter. “You should bring it over, can you imagine Thor trying to tackle it?”

For the first time in days, there was some laughter in the room.

“In all seriousness though, Tony you’re going to need to come up with the full leg brace for him as soon as you can, and then if he wishes to continue being Spiderman he’s going to need some kind of extra support put in his suit,” Strange said. “I must return to the Sanctum now as I’ve left Wong in charge for far too long. But if you want, I can return daily for an hour or so to make sure everything is in order?”

“That would be great Doc, and thank you for everything,” Tony said. “You saved the kid’s life, and I’ll never be able to repay you for that.”

“It’s not a problem Tony, it was good to be able to help,” replied the doctor, as he created a portal and hopped on through, vanishing.

“Well then,” Tony said, patting May on the leg by way of reassurance. “We’d better get to work hadn’t we?”


	8. Orbiting the sun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now recovery can properly begin.

It was early morning when Peter woke next, milky light filtering through the blinds on the left of the room and the gentle chirping of birdsong bringing the teen out of what felt like a deep slumber. 

As he came to, his brain going from a foggy confusion to a bit more clarity, he saw his beloved Aunt May sleeping on the small mattress previously occupied by Strange and watched her for a while. He noted the beeps of the monitors either side of him and became acutely aware of his body, how heavy it felt and how he knew he hadn’t moved an inch in some time. 

To test it was still functioning, he flexed his toes and fingers, noting the stiffness. He opened his mouth to yawn, releasing the jaw muscles he didn’t know he’d been clenching in his sleep. At some point, he surmised, he really should try to move. He wasn’t comfortable — he’d slipped down the bed since Strange had propped it up during the night and he could do with nudging himself back up onto the pillows.

The decision to go for it and try to move was made after a good 20 minutes of thinking about it with his fuzzy, drugged mind as well as prolonged shifting around under the covers, arms moving from his side to his tummy and back, flexing his ankles, bending his left knee. He knew moving anything of his right leg would be a huge error judging by the dull burning ache which consumed it. 

Taking the deepest breath he could he used his left leg and hands to shuffle himself up. He only made it a couple of inches before the effort was too much, exhaling as he did so and letting out a small groan in protest. 

May woke immediately, clearly even in her sleep she was on high alert for any changes and she rushed over to Peter’s bedside. 

“Morning sweetheart,” she said, adjusting the pillows so his head was properly on them. “How are you feeling?”

“Like I’ve been hit by a bus,” Peter said, slightly out of breath. 

“Well you’ve been through the mill, that’s for sure.” May ran her hand through his hair, soothingly. “Oh Peter, you did worry me."

At that moment, there was a gentle knock on the door before it slowly creaked open. Peter watched as Tony put his head into the space, as if to check it was OK to enter. Making eye contact, his mentor’s face lit up with warmth and joy he’d never seen before.

“Hey Underoos,” Tony said, smiling. “FRIDAY told me you were up. It’s so good to see you properly awake, how are you doing?”

“I’ve felt better,” Peter said, half smiling, half wincing as he tried adjusting himself again in the bed. 

“I’m sure, kiddo. But we’ll get you right.” At that moment, Tony placed a hand on Peter’s shoulder, and his other hand reached out to hold May’s - a sort of half group hug that Peter felt the warmth of even if he wasn’t being physically embraced. 

Soon after, the trio were joined by Bruce and the nice nurse Peter had been aware of before during his less lucid moments. It was nice for him to be formally introduced and to know her as Nurse Palmer going forward. As they ran tests, took blood and urine samples, refilled the IV bags and food supplements and talked with May and Tony, Peter observed as much as his tired eyes would allow. He couldn’t help but notice how exhausted everyone looked, how Bruce carried an air of anxiety about him, how Christine hadn’t changed her clothes in days judging by the coffee stains on her tunic, how May’s hair hadn’t been brushed in some time and the darkness of the rings under Tony’s eyes together with his now unkempt goatee. 

Tears welled up in his eyes, the guilt of putting them through the worry and stress of his incapacitation weighing heavy on his already leaden form. 

“I’m so sorry everyone,” Peter said, barely above a whisper. Everyone heard him though. 

“Hey, hey no need to apologise, kid,” Tony said, comforting him as he broke down. “You don’t have to worry about a thing, OK, just get yourself better. We’re here for you.”

It was unsurprising, given the amount of morphine the youngster had been on and the trauma of what had happened, that at some point he’d release the pent up emotion he must have felt. Bruce and Christine quietly departed to allow him the space he needed, while May and Tony tried to comfort him. Seeing him cry broke their hearts, and soon they joined him in releasing their emotions too. It was cathartic for everyone to collectively share the weight of the moment. 

All three of them had been through enough stress, worry and trauma in the last ten days to last a lifetime, but if there was any positive to draw from it, it was that the three of them were now bonded forever by the experience. May’s hostility towards Tony had completely vanished, as if Peter was the Sun and those who loved him most orbiting him, held steady by his gravitational pull. Never clashing, just moving in perfect harmony. 

“Thank you, Aunt May, and Mr Stark, for everything,” Peter said, wiping the last of his tears with a damp tissue. 

“You never have to thank us, that’s what we’re here for. Through thick and thin,” May said with a sniffle. 

Tony nodded in agreement, a smile in his eyes Peter knew to be his hero’s secret sign of affection. “So, now we’ve got all that emotion out of the way, what do you say we get you a cold drink, and we can watch a movie together, how does that sound?”

“That sounds nice,” Peter said. 

\-----------

As the days progressed, Team Peter was very much a unified front. 

Peter’s recovery continued positively — his feeding tube was removed, enabling him to finally enjoy the pizza he’d been craving, and he was able to stay awake a little longer each day. In the meantime, Tony designed the leg brace for him, just like Rhodey’s but without the electronics. Bruce — and Strange on his visits — advised him on the finer details, stressing how important it was that the hinge at the knee was sprung to replicate what the quad muscle would normally do for Peter’s knee, which, having gone through so much trauma, was now completely unsupported and would buckle under any weight. 

While Tony was busy in his workshop, Ned kept Peter’s spirits up with silly stories and Lego projects (Hogwarts was a huge hit), Natasha and Steve brought him back down to earth with the homework he was missing out on, while Rhodey guided him through the physical therapy side of things. 

Before being able to try the brace Tony was designing and building, Peter needed to get his strength up. After so many days of bed rest and the assault on his system — and despite the feeding tube providing him with nutrients — he’d lost a considerable amount of weight in a short space of time. The weight loss and immobility had weakened him, and just sitting up unsupported for any length of time was a chore. Initially, therapy involved a lot of massages and gentle stretching on his damaged leg and strength training for his core and upper limbs to help get him mobilised. It took a lot of effort, but with help from Rhodey and Steve and many breaks in between, he eventually got to a level where he could swing himself off the bed and hobble around on crutches. It was a huge endeavour to move just a few metres but he was delighted to just see different walls than the ones he’d been looking at for almost two weeks.   
Most days he would slowly make his way through to the lounge, just to feel a bit more normal, and enjoy the noise of his friends coming and going, the smell of the freshly-brewed coffee and cooking bacon. And he even forced his fellow Avengers to sit with him and Ned on a Star Wars marathon across two days. They all rather enjoyed the escapism.

So as far as everyone was concerned, even Peter, everything was going as well as planned. Even May felt confident enough in Peter’s progress to return to work.

Then came the day Peter was deemed well enough to try to walk.

In the compound’s training room, where Rhodey did his therapy, and all the Avengers trained and kept their bodies healthy, Peter sat on a chair with Ned, crutches by his side and two parallel bars in front of him.

“I don’t know if I can do this,” Peter said. He looked pale and very nervous. 

“Pete, it’s only temporary, try not to worry. You know no-one is going to judge here,” Ned said. “And you have the cover story we’ve made for you so when we get back to school no-one will say anything because there’s a good reason.”

“What about Flash?”

“If Flash does anything he’ll have the whole of the Avengers to deal with, I think we got you covered!”

At that moment Rhodey, Tony and Strange came into the room, Tony carrying a long metal case. He put it by Peter’s feet and clicked it open, revealing the long, black brace. “You ready underoos?”

Peter gulped nervously. “I…I guess so?”

“Like I said to you the other day kid, these things are properly weird to start with but without it, at least for now, you aren’t goin’ anywhere,” Rhodey said, sensing Peter’s hesitancy. 

“I think it would be useful, Pete, if you could just have a go walking without it, let’s see how your leg is working now and assess its performance,” Strange said. “We need to get an idea so we can make adjustments to the resistance on the knee hinge. If you have more strength than we predicted, we can make it a little less stiff. The last thing we want is for the brace to do all the work for you, as then you would become reliant on it. Do you understand?”

Aware four pairs of eyes were looking at his every move, Peter was nervous about what would happen but just decided to get it over with. He grabbed at the bars and pulled himself up, frustrated defiance in his eyes. As he’d been on his crutches already he immediately bore his weight through his left leg. But as he tried to put weight through his right leg, his knee completely buckled, as if it was made of jelly. He gathered himself to try again but after another near collapse, remedied only by Peter manually pushing his knee back into a straight position, Peter just looked defeated. At that moment he felt like he’d never regain his strength fully. “I’d like to sit down now,” he said quietly.

Tony came up to meet him face to face and saw the tears welling up in the teen’s eyes. Instead of getting the seat, he grabbed the boy for a hug and took his weight. “It’s OK Pete, this is to be expected, you are mainly human you know. Let’s try the brace, eh? See if it helps. Do you want the others to leave?”

Peter nodded into Tony’s chest. 

“Ok, ok. So let’s try this thing eh? Rhodey is the fitting expert here so we’ll let him help and in the meantime Strange and Ned can go to the lounge to wait there. Is that OK?”

Another nod.

So, Strange and Ned quietly left, not saying a word, Tony helped Peter back to his seat and Rhodey quietly fitted the brace. With everything secured properly, it was time to try again. Rhodey made a discreet departure, but not before patting Peter reassuringly on the shoulder. “It’s going to be OK, kid,” he whispered as he passed.

Nervous, he shakily rose to his feet, Tony stood in front of him and ready to grab him if he fell. 

“This feels really odd,” Peter said, as he took a tentative step. “Hurts on my thigh.”

“Unfortunately that’s something you might have to grin and bear for now, kid, your nerves don’t heal as fast as your skin so it’s going to be sensitive.” 

He took one step forward and then it was time to try the brace. Nervously he lifted his knee, and the brace moved with it. As he swung forward, his knee locked out and he was completely able to put his weight through it. “It worked Mr Stark!”

“Yeah it looks pretty good, you just gotta get the hang of it. Nice job, kid!”

One step turned into two, two into three and Peter made it the full length of the bars, Tony always there. The pair went up and down the parallel bars five times, and by the end Peter was exhausted but exhilarated, sweat running off him with the effort.

"Pizza?" Tony said.

"Oh hell yes," Peter exclaimed. He deserved it.


	9. The Friendship Circle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Almost at the end guys, just a couple of chapters to go. Hoping you're enjoying the recovery focus of this one, I've enjoyed writing it!

Peter’s progress in the week after getting the brace was, for him and for everyone else, mixed. 

Some days he would make real inroads, he’d find a bit of rhythm with his walking and feel tired, but satisfied. Other days were slow and frustrating, particularly when trying to attempt more tricky challenges like slopes. 

On his good days, there would be high fives, pizza and laughter in the lounge afterwards. On his bad days, he’d sulked, lashed out in anger saying things he didn’t mean and at one point, he made Ned storm out and Tony lose his patience.

Those days usually ended with Peter’s tears and apologies, and thankfully for him, his friends and teammates loved him enough to let it slide. Truth was, no matter how well he did, Peter was hurting. His body ached from head to toe from the continuous effort and overcompensation just to walk, not to mention the constant pain through his injured leg. Couple that with the horrid lack of energy he felt thanks to the infection completely wiping him out, and it was no surprise he got so frustrated.

One evening, after a long and fruitless day in the fitness room where it seemed like he’d taken five steps backwards in his recovery, Peter skipped dinner, took himself to bed and tried to forget the intense dull ache in his leg, his hips, his back...the list went on.

The silence only seemed to amplify his discomfort but at least he didn’t have to paint a smile on in front of anyone. All he could do was scroll through his phone and concentrate on his breathing to try to get control over the pain he felt. 

A soft knock on the door interrupted that plan.

“Hey...Wanna talk?” Tony said. “You feeling OK kiddo, not having one of your sensory moments are you?”

Peter rolled over to face him, wincing as he did so. “No, I’m ok. What did you want to talk about?”

Tony pulled up the chair by the bed. “You, of course. I’m worried about you.”

“You don’t have to worry about me Mr Stark.” Tony’s heart panged just looking at the weary teenager. He looked… small. “ I just need to work harder. Sorry about today.”

“No need to apologise, Pete, you’re doing great, you know that, don’t you?. If anything you just need to be kinder on yourself.” Tony gave Peter’s shoulder a gentle pat by way of reassurance.

Peter shrugged and looked down at his duvet cover to avoid the eye contact with his mentor. “Maybe. I’m just sick of everything hurting Mr Stark. I’m sick of feeling tired, sick of wearing oversized sweatpants so the fabric doesn’t touch my leg because it’s so sensitive, sick of the smell of disinfectant and I’m sick of needing that thing.” He gestured to the brace, propped up against the wall besides Tony. “It’s not that I’m being ungrateful, please don’t think that, sir... I just wish I didn’t need it.”

“I know, kiddo. But you’re making awesome progress, Strange thinks you’ll only need it for maybe another month, and then we can make something for you that’s much less obvious. I’ve got plans for your suit too if you wanna see?”

Peter’s eyes lit up. Exactly the response Tony was hoping for, given he figured there was a small chance Peter might not want to resume his friendly neighbourhood patrols. Tony wouldn’t have blamed him for not wanting to be Spider-Man again, but at the same time knew the kid well enough to know it would hurt him not to help others with his powers far more than any leg wound.

“How about we take a light day of therapy tomorrow and then go to the lab, just you and me, and we’ll draw up some proper plans? I have some ideas which I’ve been playing around with but I’d appreciate your input.”

There was a renewed enthusiasm to the boy’s voice. “I’d really like that Mr Stark, thank you.”

“Good, well then, that’s a date. Pick you up at 10?” he said with a smile.

“Deal!” Peter paused. “Mr Stark is it OK if I can just watch a movie quietly on my own now? And...can I have some painkillers? I think it’s been four hours since my last dose and I could use something.”

“Course, yeah, no worries. I’ll leave you to it and get Bruce to bring you some meds. Are you hungry? You need to keep your strength up and skipping dinner won’t help.”

“I might come out and get something later.”

“Ok, kid, make sure you do. See you later.”

As Tony left the room, he felt a bit better that he could offer some help to the boy. So far he’d felt a bit redundant and he absolutely hated seeing him low. Ever since he’d known him, he’d been more than capable of holding his own, full of energy and break-neck speed chatter and general excitement. It pained him to see the kid tired and aching and generally a lot slower than he knew he could be. Still, he had to remain positive for Peter, provide the support he needed and pick him up when he was down. That’s what mentors do, right?

Peter never did return to the kitchen for food. Steve volunteered to check in with him at 8pm, and found the teen sound asleep.

The next morning, having slept for a good 12 hours, Peter was keen to get going. Knowing he had a date with Tony and his suit in the lab was just the motivation he needed. The routine in the physio room was well rehearsed; stretching and core work to start with, alongside Rhodey, and then practising walking with the brace. With this new vigour, things had gone really well, and he’d even managed to go up and down the stairs ‘obstacle’ Rhodey had set up for him without many problems. Then, with confidence high, he decided it was time to try walking without using the bars. It was slow and he was probably a bit guilty of hitching his left hip too much, but he managed the whole length of the room, to Tony’s delight.

“Nice job Pete!!” Tony said, just loud enough for the rest of the team to notice Peter’s achievement as well. “Come on then, underoos. You’ve done really well today, let’s go look at your suit.” 

For the first time in weeks, Peter shot the widest smile at the man.

And he was doubly pleased as Peter, instead of taking it off and going back to his crutches, left the brace on. He slowly walked beside Tony, with a tired but happy expression. The elder man said nothing, but continued walking with the boy in the direction of the lab, he looked back to see the rest of the group smiling, Natasha eagerly throwing two thumbs up. 

The rest of the day was spent fiddling with technology, drawing up designs and just being Peter and Tony again. Just the way it had always been, and just what Peter wanted.

In the end, the pair worked out a way to incorporate a smaller knee brace into his suit using a framework made from carbon fibre and vibranium compound, meaning it was thin but super strong. Then for the spring, they created a tiny computerised hinge joint, which would react as he did, so his leaping and crouching would not be compromised. Tony also showed him the “spider cool protocol” programme which would kick in whenever the humidity rose above a certain level. Of all the protocols Tony had installed in the suit, Peter had no problem keeping this one.

“Won’t be long before you’re back in this,” Tony said. “You will take it slow though, right? No more episodes of Peter Screws the Pooch?”

“Yeah I will, I’ll keep low key. I just hate not being the Friendly Neighbourhood Spiderman. I lie awake at night worrying about all the people who need my help.”

“The people of New York need you, kid. They miss you. Everyone wants to know where you’ve gone. In the end, we put out a statement because so many newspapers were contacting us.”

“What did you tell them?” Peter asked, a slight panic in his voice. “People are going to find out it’s me if I’ve been off after my road accident” - he said the last two words using his hands to indicate quotations - “ at the same time you’ve said Spidey’s off the grid…”

“We just said you were on a research mission with Clint that was top secret - it’s given Clint a chance to spend a couple of quiet weeks with his family, just what he likes. Don’t worry, kid.”  
Peter breathed a sigh of relief as he tinkered with his web shooters.

“I have been thinking about something though, I was wondering if I...I might get your advice? So, like, May and Ned know and actually, that’s cool, but I have another friend who I really hate lying to and I’m just wondering if now would be a good time to come clean.”

“Are they trustworthy - do you think they could keep your secret for you in the way May has, and Ned has?”

“Oh yeah totally! MJ is mine and Ned’s friend. She’s cool. She keeps messaging me saying she’s going to come over to my place to see me but of course, I’m not there. And I don’t know how much longer I can lie to her and put her off.”

“Well just invite her over then. If you feel like now would be a good time, then go with your gut. I think if I were you, I would.” Talking with the kid like this felt alien to Tony, having never had conversations like this with his own father, but at the same time, it was nice that he felt comfortable enough to confide in him.

So, that evening, as well as telling Ned about the amazing day in the lab and the progress he’d made in the physio room, Peter also asked Ned his thoughts on coming clean to MJ. 

“Oh thank GOD!! I thought you’d never tell her - can you just do it already??” Ned exclaimed. “I mean, I love being the Guy in the Chair but it’s a lot of responsibility for one man, you know? Plus I totally hate lying to her.“

“Yeah, me too. And the longer I leave it, the more I feel like she’ll hate me when she does find out,” Peter said with a hint of sadness.

“She’d never hate you dude. How about I just tell her to get in the car with me tomorrow after school and she can come straight here?”

“Sounds a plan I guess. Jeez, I am suddenly nervous.” 

“It’ll be fine just you see,” said Ned. “Hey have you got any turret pieces over there?”

The pair returned to building the last parts of Hogwarts, happy in each other’s company.

\------------

“Ned, what are we doing?” MJ said, disgruntled. He was holding his hands over her eyes and leading her around the corner to the back of the school parking lot. He removed them to reveal Happy and the black limo. “Hi Ned! Come on kids, hop in.”

“I don’t get in cars with strangers,” she said, defiant, choosing to ignore the man in the suit.

“MJ, don’t worry, I know Happy. He takes Peter to his internship.”

Reluctantly, she got in the back seat, Ned shuffling in beside her. “Why are we here Ned, what aren’t you telling me?”

“Just chill out will you??”

When the car pulled into the Avengers compound, she felt even more confused. Why was she here? If Peter had been in a road accident he wouldn’t be doing his internship, surely? Looking at Ned, she opened her mouth to speak.

“Don’t ask questions!!” Ned said excitedly. 

Happy led the pair through the lobby, as he did with the Guy in the Chair every night after school, and to the lounge, where a smartly-dressed and pretty woman, who MJ knew to be Pepper Potts, was there to welcome them.

“MJ?”, she said, extending her hand to shake the girl’s hand. “I’m Pepper, welcome to our home. Want a drink?”

“Um, just a water please,” MJ replied, nervously.

“Take a seat, and I’ll be right back,” Pepper said, heading over to a huge open plan kitchen area in the corner of the room and taking Happy with her.   
Sitting in this plush and huge lounge, MJ felt as though she was waiting for a job interview, or a meeting with the school principal. She sat nervously, on edge, while Ned could barely contain his excitement. “What is WITH you Ned? You’re so lame,” MJ scolded her friend. Suddenly, through the doorway, she saw two silhouettes coming towards her, one of them, she thought, had a bit of a limp. Eventually, the shapes came into view.

“PETE!!!” She leaped up, running towards him and throwing her arms around the boy, almost knocking him over.

“Woah steady MJ! I’m not fully better yet!” He returned the hug, burying his head in the crook of her neck and breathing in the sweet coconut scent from her hair. It felt so good. 

She pulled back to take a look at her friend and realised she was stood next to Tony. “Oh, hi Mr Stark,” she said so completely indifferently it made Tony laugh. “Pete you look too skinny, where have you been? Why are you here? It’s been, like, a whole month!!”

“Um, I lost a bit of weight but I’m gaining it back now, Pepper cooks great food. How are you? I’m sorry I’ve not seen you until now.”

“Yeah what is with that?? You almost had me worried Pete.”

“I’m sorry,” Peter hung his head down sheepishly. “Can we sit down? I want to explain.”

“Ah yeah sure, ok…” MJ flashed a side-glance at him as he slowly walked past and set himself down in the crook of the corner sofa. He looked really tired, she thought. Not his usual self at all. And then she noted the long black scaffolding around his whole leg. It looked like a cast, of sorts, but more high-tech.

He shuffled nervously, and she could almost see him work through things in his mind. “Pete what is going on? Are you sick?”

“I… I… um...” the words stuck in his throat.

“HE’S SPIDERMAN!!” Ned blurted with a huge grin. Tony, Pepper and Happy watched the exchange from the kitchen area, watching Pete’s face drop and MJ look at him in complete shock.

“You?? You’re Spiderman?” she laughed. “Jeez I’ve heard some lame excuses but this is a good one. Come on, now, spill. What’s the real story.”

“This is the real story MJ! I got bitten by a radioactive spider on that field trip to Oscorp, do you remember how sick I was? After that I got, I got….I got these powers and I didn’t know how to use them but then Uncle Ben died because I didn’t do anything and now I just feel like I have to use my powers for good and - “

“Pete, slow down,” MJ was quiet now. “So you’re telling me you got bitten by a radioactive spider?”

“Yeah.”

“So...it was you who saved our team at the monument?”

“Yeah.”

“And you who caught Liz’s dad and crashed that plane on the beach at Coney?”

“Uh-huh”

“And you stopped that bus falling off the Brooklyn Bridge?”

“Yup.” Peter shrunk into himself, almost guilty for the bravery he’d shown.

MJ spent what felt like an age contemplating the information she’d just received, and then:

“How do you do all that AND be Peter Parker? And this ‘internship’.... is that real?”

Peter shifted in his seat again, rubbing his hand through his hair. “Sort of, I do come up here and learn stuff. Tony’s a good mentor. But mainly it’s me out on patrols. It’s not easy.”  
Another penny dropped. “Wait - Ned, YOU KNEW?? How long?”

“Um, maybe about six months now?” Ned said, quietly. He felt bad for MJ. 

“MJ I never wanted anyone to find out,” Peter said. “I wanted to keep everyone safe. But then Ned caught me out when he came over one night to build a Lego Death Star, then May caught me trying on my new suit. Until now they were the only people outside the Avengers compound who knew. 

“But then, this happened —” he gestured to the leg brace "— and the longer I’ve been here the more I’ve realised I’ve been lying to you and I just can’t do that to my friends. I’m really sorry. Can you forgive me?”

MJ looked at her friend, and as the anger washed away it was replaced by a respect she didn’t know she had for him. That this boy, her age, was juggling school, his friendships and this secret and really dangerous life. “Course, you nerd. So… I’m guessing it wasn’t a road accident? What really happened?”

And so Pete and Ned recounted everything. The incident, the infection, the surgery, the therapy and everything in between.

“I can’t believe you almost died Pete and I knew nothing,” she said as Peter finished telling her. The trio sat in silence, reflecting on her words.

By this time, Tony and Pepper had joined them, bringing over the round of drinks and a bowl of chips, and sitting by Peter for some moral support. Retelling his story hadn’t been easy. “It was pretty bad, MJ,” Tony said. “But thanks to his enhanced healing he’s been able to fight back so much stronger than we ever thought possible.”

“You have enhanced healing? That’s pretty cool.”

“Yeah,” Peter said, almost embarrassed. “After I stopped Toomes I had cracked ribs, torn muscles in my shoulder, had a ton of cuts and bruises, and my knee swelled up like a balloon. It was all gone by Monday.”

“Wait, you didn’t tell me that!” Tony exclaimed. 

“Didn’t think it was important,” Peter shrugged. “I’ll explain all that later.”

“Yeah, you had better do, underoos.”

“It’s good to see you Pete,” MJ said, hugging him again. “But don’t ever do this again...please?”

“I’ll do my best.” he paused. “Hey, do you want a tour of the place? I can show you some cool stuff.”  
MJ wasn’t all that interested, to be honest. But seeing the smile on Peter’s face was enough to convince her otherwise. She’d not seen him in so long that any company with him was better than none at all.

“Sure,” she shrugged, appearing nonchalant. “I suppose it could be good.”

“Cool!!” Ned exclaimed. He helped Peter back on his feet and, with Tony chaperoning the trio, they spent the rest of the evening having the kind of tour their schoolmates could only dream of. Ned tried on the Ironman suit — with careful supervision of course — and MJ spent a good deal of time learning about women in business with Pepper. 

Peter slept soundly that night.


	10. Bakc to school

It had been long enough, Peter decided. 

And now MJ had been to visit and knew everything, and he was able to walk fairly freely, he decided he wanted to go back to school. 

Both May and Tony were delighted he’d come to the decision alone and was keen to get back to normal. However, both agreed he shouldn’t go home just yet, and stay at the compound until he was fully recovered, so he could make the best use of all the facilities and technology on offer. 

May didn’t mind, she could see how well everyone cared for the boy, and how the boy was learning so much from them. Only for another month or so, and then she’d have her Pete fully back.

For the first day back at school though, she insisted on being there to see him off. As much as Peter appreciated the support, he didn’t appreciate the fussing. 

“May, I’m gonna be fine,” Peter huffed, putting the brace on over his jeans. “You don’t have to worry, I promise.”

Truth was, his insides were churning and he felt sick with nerves. What would people say, what would they ask, how would he answer, would he get tired? He almost decided to bail out but didn’t want to let her, or Mr Stark, down.

Grabbing his backpack and taking a deep breath, he walked through to the lounge to grab his lunch, where he got the surprise of his life.

He was faced with all the Avengers, Tony front and centre. Strange was there, and Christine, and Ned and MJ. They had party hats, streamers and a stack of pancakes with a candle on the top. A ‘CONGRATULATIONS’ banner hung from the ceiling.

Peter flushed red with embarrassment. “Guys...um… I dunno what to say.”

Tony put an arm around the boy, leading him towards the stack. “You don’t have to say anything kid!” Tony then uttered, out of earshot. “This is a big day for you, for all of us. We’re proud of you! And we couldn’t let your return to school go unrecognised.” Then he exclaimed, “Eat up, you’ve got a big day ahead!”

“But I’m nervous, Mr Stark,” Peter whispered.

“What about?” Tony put his hands on both Peter’s shoulders and looked him square in the eye. “You’ll be fine. You need this, you can’t stay cooped up here forever, can you? And I’m only a call away if you need anything. Ok?”

“Ok, Mr Stark,” Peter said, painting on a smile.  
He couldn’t get to the pancakes for a few minutes as his team-mates gave their individual good luck hugs and fist bumps. It felt good to know that not only had he been accepted into this amazing band of brothers and sisters, but he was also truly liked. 

With so much love in the room, all his nerves were forgotten and after they all tucked into the mountain of pancakes and cake Tony had laid on, Happy took the three teens to school. The nerves crept back in during the journey, the noise of MJ and Ned’s chatter fading into the distance as he looked out the window. In the end, the mantra of “I have my friends, surely it won’t be too bad” repeated in his brain in an attempt to quash his growing unease. 

In the end, it was.

Happy had parked somewhere inconspicuously, but Peter still had to walk through the school gates. He felt all eyes on him, and the whispers of the other students became a collective hum, which then became an intensive pain. He’d spent some time training himself to cope with the hustle and bustle of school, to tune out the unnecessary. But now, out of practice AND the focus of everyone’s attention, it was almost too much. MJ, now fully understanding of what Peter dealt with on a daily basis with his heightened senses, gently squeezed his hand as they made their way very slowly up the stairs and then down the school hall. It grounded Peter as he tried desperately to regain his control. Ned provided support the other side, the two friends doing their best to protect Peter from prying eyes.

The first thing to do was to have a chat with Principal Morita, to go through how things would be on his return, how he could catch up with his work if he had any questions. MJ volunteered to go in with him, taking notes in case he had tuned out everyone.  
As the day progressed, the protection ring Ned and MJ had formed around their friend grew tighter, as they called out snooping gossips, talked for him when he couldn’t cope with repeating the lie over and over, and reported Flash to the Principal when he mocked Peter’s slight limp in the canteen. Frankly, they wanted to punch him but detention wouldn’t be sensible.

By the time the bell sounded to go home, all three were emotionally exhausted, and Peter was physically wiped out too. 

They got through the door of the compound, Peter leaning on Ned to walk gingerly to the lounge where he practically fell on the sofa. 

Tony and Pepper were in the kitchen and heard the soft thump as Peter slumped in exhaustion.

“Pete!” Tony rushed over. “What happened? Are you OK kid?”

He groaned, half-asleep.

“He’s just really tired Mr Stark,” MJ said, sitting down next to him and running a hand through his hair with affection. “I think he’s in a bit of pain too, not that he’d admit that as I’m sure you know. A combination of his leg and the sensory overload. But you know, Pete is the most stubborn guy on this planet.”

“S’OK,” Peter mumbled.

“It was a pretty rough day,” Ned added. “We knew he’d get attention, you know what kids are like. But this was next-level. It was too much...for all of us.”

“You two look pretty tired too, are you OK?” Pepper asked. “Wanna stay for dinner?”

The two nodded. “Great!” she said. “You give your parents a call, relax here and we’ll drop you home later tonight. Does pizza sound good?”

With the lights dimmed to 30 per cent, the exterior sounds blocked out by Tony’s soundproofing technology and some pain relief, Peter was able to doze on the sofa. Away from the snoozing boy in the kitchen, Tony and Pepper got to know his friends a lot better. They bonded over science, and a mutual love of pepperoni and after Peter finally woke, feeling much better all round, the sound of teenage laughter filled the rooms and corridors of the Avengers compound as they shared stories and debated the potential endings of Game of Thrones. 

By 8.30 though, Peter was ready to sleep again, still tired from his long day with a belly full of carbs to make him feel sluggish for good measure.

“We should get home,” MJ said, noting her friend’s drooping eyes and yawns. She turned to Tony. “We’ll wait for him at the school gate tomorrow morning,” she said. “He’s not going through this alone. Oh and Mr Stark, I took some notes from his meeting with the Principal, I was going to send them to May but do you want them too?”

“That’d be great, thanks MJ, good of you to think to do that.”

“No worries, Mr Stark, no worries at all.”

\------------

As each school day passed, so the novelty of Peter being back in class wore off with the rest of the students and by the second week, it was as if he’d never been away. Aceing classes and dealing with canteen banter with Flash never felt so good. Coupled with this was Peter’s overall strength returning, his boundless energy reappearing in fits and starts much to the delight of those who knew him best. 

Even walking became a great deal easier and rather than feeling he needed the brace he began to feel as if it were restricting him. At a therapy session one Wednesday night, Peter decided to try walking without it and, although he was a little unsteady on his feet, he managed to reach his point of focus, a certain Tony Stark, who was standing by the exercise bikes deep in conversation with Rhodey. 

“Hey guys,” he said to the pair, interrupting whatever it was they were talking about. 

“Oh hey Pete, what’s up? Want me to help with something?” Rhodey said. 

“No, actually, I don’t need help…” Peter said with a pointing gesture south.

“Oh my god kiddo that’s brilliant!!” Tony couldn’t hide his surprise, lifting the boy up and engulfing him in a huge hug. “You’re ready to move onto phase two then?”

“I reckon so!!”

“Hey I hate to say I told you so, but…Pete, didn’t I tell you it’d be OK, eh?” Rhodey said, before high-fiving the teen. “So let’s have a look at you then!”

Peter took that as a little nudge to give a proper demonstration, seeing as they didn’t see him make his way over in the first place. He turned and walked away for a few steps before turning and coming back, a huge grin on his face.

“Nice!” Tony said, clapping his hands together. “I’ll go to the lab, get that smaller one we made for your knee now, let’s see how that goes?”

“Sure Mr Stark that’d be great!”

Minutes later, Tony was back with the much smaller and sleeker knee brace the pair had made a couple of weeks previously. The technology fit Peter to perfection and with it, his walking appeared completely normal — no-one would know anything had happened. Within minutes he was on the treadmill running, attempting small squats and using the rowing machine with ease. 

The knowledge he could now do all these things again, although the lack of practice tired him out, felt incredible to Peter. Weeks after almost dying, here he was able to join his Avengers friends in the gym and keep up with them. And that meant only one more thing — soon he could be Spider-Man again.

Later that evening, Peter was proudly showing off his new technology to Ned, who couldn’t believe his luck when Tony had said they could use his lab for their science project.

“This is literally the coolest day of my life,” said Ned, reclining in Tony’s seat. “Who would have thought, me and you, here, working with all this AMAZING stuff!”

“It’s crazy isn’t it? I have to keep it cool here but, dude, sometimes it’s really hard not to just freak out.”

A moment of silence followed as the pair took in their surroundings completely.

“Are you ready to be Spider-Man again do you think?” Ned said. “Aren’t you worried something bad will happen again?”

“Nah I can’t wait Ned, it’s like, I can’t imagine my life not being Spider-Man. I said to Mr Stark once, ‘when you do the things that I can, but you don’t and then the bad things happen? They happen because of you’.”

“Woah...that’s deep. And also one of the coolest things I’ve ever heard anyone say.”

“Yeah but it’s true. And I’m pretty sure something bad will happen again, but worse things will happen if I don’t. So… yeah, can’t wait to get back out on patrol.”

“When do you think it’ll happen?”

“Soon I think, need to carry on with the whole fitness thing, it’s kinda boring but Mr Stark promised I could try some swinging next week.”

“Sweet,” Ned said, pretending to be Iron Man with the gauntlet on his wrist.

“Er you better not be wearing my tech Mr Leeds…” Tony stood in the doorway with a smile. 

“Sorry Mr Stark, I wasn’t planning on doing anything! I promise!” Ned flushed with embarrassment. 

“It’s OK kid, but yeah just take it off now, ‘kay? It’s a bit below your pay grade.”

Peter burst out laughing. It had been a great day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Almost there folks...


	11. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here you have it, a short piece of fluffy fluff to wrap things up. 
> 
> Thanks to everyone's who has read, bookmarked and given kudos to this - I really appreciate it!
> 
> And, if you have any ideas on future shameless Tony/Peter whump tales just send them my way :)

**Two weeks later**

It was 2.45pm and, after a day of making a fresh batch of web fluid, sailing through a geography test and enjoying a great lunch with Ned and MJ, the time had FINALLY come for Spidey to make his big comeback. 

“Good luck tonight Pete,” Ned whispered across the desks as their Spanish teacher wrapped up the lesson. 

“Cheers dude, I am excited!” Peter could hardly keep his voice down, the eagerness to make a break for the door almost too much to bear. 

As the school bell rang he tried to keep it cool but his walk turned into a full on sprint down the hallway and out the school gates, Ned following as fast as he could. Dashing to the nearest alleyway three blocks down, he frantically stripped down to his boxers, pulled off his knee brace and from his backpack, pulled out the suit. THE suit. His suit. 

Clambering into it he quickly pressed the spider on his chest to activate it and make it stick to his body, noting how the integrated knee brace tightened around the joint.  


Rather than worry about it, Peter took comfort from knowing it was there, safe and secure. He knew he was lucky, not everyone had the tech and the support he had - it was something he wanted to speak to Mr Stark about eventually, about maybe helping others who needed this sort of thing. 

Suddenly, his phone was yodelling, Ned’s squashed face appearing on the screen.

“Where are you bud?”

“Down the fourth alley on 25th, why?”

“Cause you CANNOT afford to lose your backpack anymore! Give it to me, I’ll take it to your apartment for when you get back.”

“Dude, you are the best!!”

Ned appeared around the corner, panting slightly. “Anything to help a friend - I’m more than just the Guy in the Chair you know!”

With his backpack safe, it was time. 

Ned watched as the web-slinger made his way up the wall with ease, before swinging away into the distance. As he did so, Ned smiled as he heard a sound he’d missed far more than he realised.

“Wooooooooo-hoooooooooo!!!”


End file.
